Tip Position Control with Hub Corrections for a Flexible Manipulator

Abstract A control for a flexible manipulator is presented. Two loops are employed; one of them is a PD internal loop to control the measured hub angle. The other is an outer loop for the tip position which it is sensed using a led attached to the link and properly measured with 3D infrared cameras. Errors in Cartesian space are transformed to hub angle space through the Jacobian Inverse Matrix under rigid-body assumption. This signal changes the set-point for the internal loop in order to correct for those errors generated by vibrations. Control strategy is validated using an experimental set-up.